Our Work

The details of a brick replacement in Forest City

Finding a replacement brick that fits

A replacement brick has to match in size first, so it sits in the course without oversized joints, and then as closely as practical in color and texture. Older chimneys can have brick that is no longer made, which limits the choice.

Our specialists bring samples to compare against your chimney in daylight. Sometimes a sound brick from a hidden spot can be reused on a visible face. We tell you before ordering how close the match on your Forest City chimney is likely to be, so the result holds no surprises.

Coatings that trap moisture

Some sealers form a film on the brick surface. BIA Technical Note 6A warns that film-forming coatings slow the evaporation of water inside masonry and can lead to clouding and spalling when the moisture source is not addressed. Clouding under the film is often the first visible sign.

If a sealer was applied to your chimney in the past and the faces are now breaking, the coating may be part of the cause. Our specialists look for it during the free inspection and explain what the replacement bricks need so they are not sealed into the same problem.

Keeping the bond pattern

Chimney brick is laid in a pattern, most often a running bond with each brick centered over the joint below, sometimes with header courses or decorative details at the top. Replacement bricks go back into that same pattern, cut where the original was cut.

A repair that ignores the pattern stands out, and it can weaken the way the courses lock together. In Forest City, the new units follow the original layout so the repaired face reads as part of the whole. Our specialists point out any cut or special brick in the pattern before work starts, so it is replaced in kind.

Brick over a framed chimney

Some chimneys are a single layer of brick built around a framed structure, with an air space behind the brick. When a unit is removed from that kind of wall, debris can drop into the space and block drainage, which brick industry guidance warns against.

We check how the chimney on your Forest City home is built before the first brick comes out. On a veneer chimney, openings are cleaned from the face, debris is caught before it falls, and our specialists note any sign that water has reached the framing behind.